Cambridge University Chamber Choir (CUCC)

Cambridge University Chamber Choir (CUCC) aims to provide the best student singers with the opportunity to perform, to the highest possible standard, repertoire that is not usually undertaken by Cambridge chapel choirs. Directed by Martin Ennis, with associate conductors David Lowe and Nicholas Mulroy, it typically undertakes three or four projects a year.

CUCC often places an emphasis on secular music rather than sacred, and it often foregrounds repertoire that allows singers to appear as soloists or in small groups. However, the choir also performs on a regular basis with groups such as Cambridge University Orchestra and the Faculty of Music’s Collegium Musicum (a period-instrument ensemble directed by Margaret Faultless). CUCC members are also frequently offered opportunities to take part in projects involving multiple choirs.

The chamber choir is a fantastic opportunity for experienced singers who are looking to work in a more intimate environment or on a project basis. Through choosing such a diverse range of repertoire, the ensemble takes the university’s best choral singers and helps them achieve standards that exceed their expectations. Recent highlights have included participation in an international festival of sacred music in Yale, collaborations with the Cambridge University Orchestra in works by Vaughan Williams, Nielsen, Stravinsky and Brahms, pioneering performances of Venetian polychoral music, and participation in The Cardinall’s Musick’s 25th-anniversary performance of Tallis’ Spem in Alium.

Auditions typically take place at the start of the academic year, though expressions of interest from experienced singers are always welcome. Those wishing to audition are asked to prepare one short solo; they will also be asked to undertake sight-reading and aural tests. For more information on the choir, please contact Katharine Ambrose.

2018-9 season auditions are now open! You can sign up for an audition here.

Auditions will take place on Wednesday 3, Thursday 4 and Friday 5 October 2018. If you have any queries regarding auditions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

2018-19 Programme:

On Friday, 16 November 2018, the choir, alongside members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Experience Ensemble, as well as Cambridge University Collegium Musicum, will perform Handel’s Gloria and Dixit Dominus, conducted by John Butt and led by Margaret Faultless at West Road Concert Hall.

On Saturday 19 January 2019, the choir will join forces with some of Cambridge’s top College choirs for Britten’s War Requiem, conducted by Graham Ross in King’s College Chapel.

On Tuesday 5 February 2019, the choir will perform as part of the Cambridge University Lunchtime Concert series with players from Cambridge University Collegium Musicum, directed by Nicholas Mulroy, in St John’s Divinity School.

On Thursday 25 April 2019, the choir will perform secular works by Brahms, directed by Martin Ennis, as part of the Cambridge Brahms Festival, in Robinson College Chapel.

For more information on upcoming concerts please visit our What’s On page.